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Apr 17, 2009

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Eluned Brianne Avril

Born at 2.40 pm, Thursday April 9th 2009 weighing 3.52 kg, measuring 50cm at 37 weeks and 2 days gestation.

On March 6th I went to see my GP as I’d had a weird chest pain all day - I’d had a
cold for a couple of days and thought it was something to do with that
- he sent me to Urgences (ER) at the local hospital as he was concerned
it was either a pulmonary embolism or pneumonia. I had a variety of
tests at the hospital and they decided to admit me to do further tests.
As a precaution they sent me to maternity for some monitoring - that’s
when they found out that I was also having mild but regular
contractions - at that point I was 32+3 weeks.

I stayed in
Maternity overnight but was moved to the cardiac unit for a couple of
days - all the time I was had a variety of drips and was on strict
bedrest - couldn’t even get up to go to the loo. The chest pain went
away and all the tests were fine so I was moved back to Maternity as
the contractions were continuing. I then spent another week in
Maternity while they monitored my newly diagnosed GD, kept me on a
strictly sugar free diet and tried to stop the contractions - I was at
least allowed to go to the loo and take a shower but otherwise was on
bedrest. After 10 days in hospital, they decided that I needed to be
transferred to a different hospital as they didn’t have a neo-natal
unit there and were concerned not only by the contractions but also the
GD and the fact that I was taking anti-depressants which could lead to
issues for the baby after delivery.

I ended up spending
the next four weeks or so at the next hospital, they moved me to
insulin injections which did improve my blood sugar results (which at
one point were being checked every two hours!), the contractions
continued and we started to lower the dosage of anti-depressants ready
for the birth. At 36 weeks plus a few days, they stopped the medication
which was meant to be reducing/preventing contractions with the aim of
labour progressing naturally at around 37 weeks. I was also allowed to
start moving around little more. An ultrasound at 36+4 weeks estimated
the baby’s weight to be 3.6 kg and an induction was planned for 37+2
weeks. I’ve always been against inductions but at that point I’d had
enough. The contractions didn’t seem to progress so the induction went
ahead. I only need the gel - a pessary which was inserted for a couple
of hours at about 8 am- to get things going. The first stage took some
time but once I got to 5-6cm dilated everything got very intense - I
used gas and air only for pain relief - and to everyone’s surprise
Eluned was born about 20 mins later and needed just one push!

Her
initial Apgars were fine but after a while it became obvious that she
was very sleepy still and she was taken to the Neo-Natal unit.

When
she arrived at the Neo-Natal Unit (Thursday pm) she was put into a
warmer and put on a glucose drip as she was too sleep to feed. Her
oxygen saturation kept dipping below 90% the first night so she had a
little bit of oxygen then but she improved very quickly. I was able to
cuddle her every now and then and I also put her face on my breast for
contact. After 36 hours or so in the warmer she was taken off the drip
and moved to a crib where she was still monitored (Saturday AM). She
was fed by bottle although I found that she wouldn’t bottle feed for
me- she just fell asleep. She started to nuzzle at the boob more and
started to actually feed. I’d been trying to pump regularly back in my
room but hadn’t had much success - I’d pump for 20 mins on each side
and get only a couple of drops of colostrum. Sunday morning she fed
really well and the paediatrician decided that she could come back to
Maternity with me as it would be much more practical - her oxygen
saturation was right up to 98-100% by that time also.

On
the Monday morning, I was told that we could leave, pending a check by
the paediatrician. When she was checked everything was fine except
she’d lost more weight - 100g so I was told that we’d have to stay
another day. Tuesday morning, she had again lost weight - 40g - but we
were allowed to leave but she had to be reweighed in 48hrs (there is a
service here called the PMI, they work a bit like health visitors in
the UK).

Tuesday
night and Wednesday, she fed a lot, sometimes with only 30-45 minutes
between feeds. On Thursday, the lady from the PMI came and weighed her.
She did warn us that her scales tended to weigh a little on the heavy
side and that the difference between that weighing and the next would
give a better indication of weight gain/loss. Once she was weighed
though, it became obvious that even allowing for the scales weighing a
little heavy, Eluned had gained at least 100g! I was so relieved! She’s
being weighed again on Monday but I think that she’ll be fine. (The
every 48 hrs thing is just not possible as the PMI don’t work weekends.)

On Names:
Eluned and Brianne are both Welsh (eh-LIN-ed bree-AN), Eluned is more traditional while Brianne is more modern in its usage as a name. Eluned is the 'just for her' name while Brianne is to honour my Dad, Brian, who died a few years ago. Avril was a last minute addition. French for April, it's also my grandmother's first name (although she's never used it and has been known as Peggy all her life). We'd been expecting a May baby so it hadn't seemed appropriate. The change in circumstances meant that we were able to add it.Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters...

Meleri and Rhianwen are both absolutely enchanted with their new sister. The hard part is keeping Rhianwen from picking her up to cuddle! She get's regular assisted cuddles but obviously is too young for anything more.

Looking back at Rhianwen's baby photos, she looks almost identical at the same age, here's a photo of Rhainwen as a newborn for comparison: